How to get the most out of your Michael 5 and Victoria 5Carrara 8.5 Shaders.

In the Shader Room go to the Browser tab marked “Shaders” navigate down to skin->Genesis->Michael 5 (Or Victoria 5)->Character Name. Choose your shader then Drag and Drop onto the big multi-colored ball on the top right.

Use the little hand at the top of the screen to go back to the assembly room. It is usually best if you then Remove Unused Master Shaders. (This is a good habit to be in when you replace shaders because it frees up memory.)

You can then select Genesis and add clothing, hair and other content to the scene. You will likely wish to adjust shaders for any other content you add to the scene, specifically Highlight, Shininess, Bump and possibly Displacement and Glow.

These shaders are set up to work in a wide variety of lighting situations. However since shaders and lighting are interdependent it may be necessary to adjust one or the other for the look you are going for. To do that each skin material zone has a pair of extra sliders, one in shininess and the other in highlight. This should make it easy to adjust for your particular render.

Also note that pure HDRI lighting in Carrara does not produce skin highlights. To bring those out, in conjunction with an HDRI map, it is usually necessary to add a low intensity spotlight or two or other direct light to the scene.

Thanks for reading this. I hope you enjoy your shaders as much as I enjoyed making them.